Who is your favourite atheist intellectual?

Tim Robbins

Ok folks, vote for your favourite atheist intellectual...
I suggest this poll is open to theists as well as atheists. Afterall, you can respect some and find them interesting and thought provoking even if you don't agree with them!

Dave!

Carl Sagan aint on it! :eek: Expect a hiding for that

Personally I've only read Richard Dawkins, so I'll withhold my vote....

...I'm such an atheist n00b

Tim Robbins

Sam Harris

DaveMcG wrote:

Carl Sagan aint on it! :eek: Except a hiding for that

Personally I've only read Richard Dawkins, so I'll withhold my vote....

...I'm such an atheist n00b

Fair point Dave, but you are only allowed 10 options.

MrJoeSoap

Does Douglas Adams count?

Binomate

Christopher Hitchens

Always loved Sam Harris. I don't know what it is about him, but I think he's great. Maybe it's because he focuses a lot on religion in America because of that Americans come off as being really really retarded.

+1 Douglas Adams

bleg

Deleted User wrote:

+1 Douglas Adams

voted for A.N. other with him in mind before i even read this thread

The Bollox

Douglas Adams ftw!

I love his little bit on how God vanishes in a puff of logic

Douglas Adams wrote:

‘I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’

“‘But,’ says Man, ‘The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’

“‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

robindch

I'd vote for Douglas Adams, Anthony Grayling, David Hume or Carl Sagan, if they were there. And maybe Robert Ingersoll, HL Mencken or Edward Gibbon for their finely-turned thoughts

.

Scofflaw

Probably Ursula LeGuin, with Bertrand Russell in second place. Depends, I suppose, on your definition of intellectual.

cordially,
Scofflaw

lookinforpicnic

Vic Stenger

Daniel Dennett for me, like the way he does philosophy and his material is on topics that interest me (cognitive science/evolution/neuroscience). Not well read in many other atheists I'm afraid (except Dawkins).

Son Goku

Scofflaw wrote:

Bertrand Russell

Really, for what reason?

(I agree, I'd just like to know your own reasons if you don't mind)

Hivemind187

Colin McGinn

Dawkins, only because he is still alive. Adams knows for sure

Dades

Pchaaah - not listing Carl Sagan. Lucky I don't ban you.

Also Douglas Adams and Emilio Largo.

Scofflaw

Son Goku wrote:

Really, for what reason?

(I agree, I'd just like to know your own reasons if you don't mind)

Partly because he came up with some evocative images (the advance through the darkness), largely, I think, because rather than being a philosophical scientist he was a scientific philosopher. In one word, I suppose, clarity.

cordially,
Scofflaw

PDN

Julian Bagginni

Bertrand Russell. I really enjoyed A History of Western Philosophy.

Talliesin

Albert Camus

PDN

Julian Bagginni

Albert Camus wrote:

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.

Too many posts today are reminding me of old songs.

Now I've got the tune to The Cure's "Killing an Arab" running through my head due to the Camus connection.

Zombrex

Wicknight, I think he is great

Yeah, me too, Wicknight is the best atheist intellectual

Woo! Wicknight, that boy really knows his stuff











... I'll get my coat

Scofflaw

PDN wrote:

Bertrand Russell. I really enjoyed A History of Western Philosophy.

Mind you, his educational ideas were terrible - but that seems to be a very common trap for intellectuals.

cordially,
Scofflaw

A.N. other (please name)

I'm not too familiar with the poll options except I'm not a dawkins fan, so I figured I might as well vote someone on boards

5uspect

Christopher Hitchens

I prefer Dawkins writings on evolution. Harris gets my vote.

dan719

G.H Hardy followed by Bertrand Russell

MoominPapa

Frank Zappa - one of the towering intellects of the late 20th century, prolific genius and scourge of hypocrites, snake oil merchants and a*sholes in general

Zillah

Christopher Hitchens

Binomate wrote:

Always loved Sam Harris. I don't know what it is about him, but I think he's great. Maybe it's because he focuses a lot on religion in America because of that Americans come off as being really really retarded.

For shame that there are only three votes for this excellent thinker!

What I think makes Sam Harris so cool is that he is so damn persuasive. Dawkins comes across as a condescending jerk who has an agenda. Harris sounds like an intelligent man who is very worried about the state of the world, and simply feels the need to let others know of these concerns. He's also not afraid of being seen as un-PC. He thinks Islam is a terrible and dangerous thing, and makes an excellent argument for it. He has this strange, stoic and implaccable logic to his writings.

5uspect

Christopher Hitchens

Zillah wrote:

What I think makes Sam Harris so cool is that he is so damn persuasive. Dawkins comes across as a condescending jerk who has an agenda. Harris sounds like an intelligent man who is very worried about the state of the world, and simply feels the need to let others know of these concerns. He's also not afraid of being seen as un-PC. He thinks Islam is a terrible and dangerous thing, and makes an excellent argument for it. He has this strange, stoic and implaccable logic to his writings.

Very true.

Tim Robbins

Sam Harris

Zillah wrote:

For shame that there are only three votes for this excellent thinker!

What I think makes Sam Harris so cool is that he is so damn persuasive. Dawkins comes across as a condescending jerk who has an agenda. Harris sounds like an intelligent man who is very worried about the state of the world, and simply feels the need to let others know of these concerns. He's also not afraid of being seen as un-PC. He thinks Islam is a terrible and dangerous thing, and makes an excellent argument for it. He has this strange, stoic and implaccable logic to his writings.

I disagree. I read his "End of Faith". In one chapter he berates Islam and gives a list of several Islam countries but deliberatley leaves out the more progressive ones.
For me, this is the same as Creationists deliberately leaving out facts such as why there are "gaps" in the fossil record.

Zillah

Christopher Hitchens

You didn't really make a point there Tim. What exactly did he do wrong? He left progressive Islamic countries out of some sort of list...?

Tim Robbins

Sam Harris

Zillah wrote:

You didn't really make a point there Tim. What exactly did he do wrong? He left progressive Islamic countries out of some sort of list...?

I did make a point. He commits an "act of ommission". I presume you read the book?

aidan24326

Robert Ingersoll for me. And of course the brilliant Carl Sagan.

Unlike some here I actually like Dawkins, although Carl Sagan had a superior ability to relate his point to the common man. He wasn't as intellectually snobbish as Dawkins. That said, I do think Dawkins has been instrumental in opening up the whole debate to a wider audience, and I agree with him 110% that religion does not deserve the respect it gets.

aidan24326

edit: double post. gremlins in the server.